


How One Caretaker Became Two

by secrettimelady



Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secrettimelady/pseuds/secrettimelady
Summary: Sigmund hadn't always worked at the Great Clock. There was a time before that, when Orvus was alone, and Sigmund was a cleaner bot on Viceron. Cross-posted on fanfic.net and beta read and edited by The Zoni Enthusiast.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a long time since he had spoken aloud, Orvus realized. Several years, if not several decades, in fact. But then he remembered that there wasn’t much of a point. The Computer knew precisely what was expected of her, and, in fact, wasn’t much for conversation. And Orvus tried to stay as far away from his Zoni as he could. He knew he wasn’t suited to being in charge, and he figured his Zoni likely did, too.

He sighed. The work for the day had already been done, and he didn’t exactly have much to do instead. He had the library that the Zoni had been steadily collecting books for, but most of the books were old Fongoid texts, and the last thing he needed was a reminder of _that_ failure. No. He’d simply have to find something else to do instead.

Three of his Zoni wandered by, and without meaning to, Orvus picked up on their thoughts within the hive mind. They had been patrolling on Viceron, and apparently, there was a robot there who was… well, a little strange. He frowned. Viceron… He remembered that planet. It was in the Verdigris sector, as he recalled. Well, if this robot had grabbed the attention of his Zoni, it was worth checking out. After all, they were patrolling to make certain no one tried to recreate the successes of the relatively recently fallen Fongoids. If this robot had gotten their attention, there was every chance it was a threat!

In truth, Orvus knew full well he was exaggerating, so he had an excuse to go out. But he was allowed to do that. What was the point of being in charge if you didn’t use it to get your way every now and again? Just as he prepared to teleport to Viceron, though, he frowned. He wasn’t _actually_ sure where on Viceron this robot was, what it looked like, or even where, exactly, Viceron itself was! With a sigh, he reached out and brushed against the Zoni hive mind.

Colors, sounds, thoughts, and emotions assailed him from all sides as Orvus realized quite abruptly that he _couldn’t do this_ and pulled away from the hive mind. Several Zoni nearby looked at him curiously, but Orvus sent them on their way with a wave of his hand. No need for _every_ Zoni to realize that their Sire had clearly lost his mind. Almost as soon as that thought crossed his mind, Orvus realized that three Zoni was just in front of him. A quick brush showed that they were the same three who had been on Viceron earlier, and he could feel them pressing at the fragile hive mind connection that he maintained out of little more than a formality. He hated being reminded of what he had done, of the exile he had forged for himself.

The Zoni in front of him disappeared, and Orvus nodded. That was much more normal. They usually left him alone to do his work, and all was as it should be. He carried on moving through the Clock, intent on heading to his workroom. However, as he approached the door, his path was blocked by three Zoni, and one of them held out a piece of paper. In perfect handwriting, something Orvus had never had, it detailed everything known about the robot on Viceron. The Zoni all bowed their heads to him before flying off.

Orvus made a face before changing course. The library would be the ideal place to figure out a plan of action, despite its abundance of Fongoid books. Setting the sheet of paper down at the empty desk, Orvus made his way to the shelves, many of which were still bare. Though even as he thought that, a trio of Zoni popped in, a book cradled carefully in one’s arms, and they set it on one of the shelves before popping out. Orvus smiled to himself. They had a habit of bringing in whatever books they thought he may find interesting, even though he hadn’t asked them to.

One disadvantage of the Zoni simply putting the books wherever they liked was that there was little rhyme or reason to how the library was organized. Finding a map was going to be a problem. But there was a small selection of star maps that he had acquired before the Clock, before his imprisonment. Undoubtedly one of them had to have the Verdigris sector on it!

Orvus gave a small noise of triumph when he found the map he was looking for. He rolled it out onto another desk, looking it over carefully. He spotted Viceron reasonably quickly. It looked as though it was mainly an industrial planet, and the piece of paper informed him that the robot was a cleaner bot in one of the many factories. Interestingly enough, the factory that the robot worked in was the one that had produced him. Polaris Sanitation Industries, apparently. He looked over the coordinates once more before nodding and teleporting out.


	2. Chapter 2

Upon teleporting onto Viceron, the first thing he did was turn invisible. The last thing he needed was someone spotting him. He wandered around the large factory, taking note of the cleaning bots. They all moved in such a manner that he could easily see that they were little more than programmed robots. Dark blue, with a tool belt of sorts around the bottom. They floated around, each handling what appeared to be a preprogrammed area of the factory. This seemed to be the model that had captured the interest of his Zoni, though Orvus hadn’t noticed any of them being particularly noteworthy. As he watched, some of the factory workers enter the building. However, he saw one of the robots perk up.

“Hello!” The robot said, quite cheerfully. All of the workers ignored the greeting, though Orvus heard a couple of them muttering about a ‘defective bot’ and how the quality manager had already been informed. Orvus frowned and watched the so-called defective cleaning bot for a while.

Though he mostly cleaned and cleaned well, he seemed to take an interest in some of the machines' inner workings, occasionally asking the workers questions about what they were doing. Like the workers from earlier, they just ignored the poor robot, though some actually shoved him away from them.

After a few hours of this, Orvus watched an unpleasant looking woman approach the robot, frowning when the robot greeted her.

“You are a cleaning bot. You’re not meant to speak except when directing people around messes.”

“But… I wanted to talk to people…” Orvus watched the robot slump forward a bit. The woman seemed unimpressed.

“What’s your serial number?” The robot perked up at this.

“Sigma-0426A! What’s your name?” Orvus winced at how the woman just frowned even deeper.

”Sigma-0426A… Got it.” She tapped on a tablet for a minute before walking away. Sigma-0426A watched her go with a curious expression on his face before returning to his work.

“My first conversation!” He exclaimed happily, and Orvus frowned. That shouldn’t have been the first time someone spoke with him, not at all! Sigma-0462A continued his work for another hour or so until he was approached by the unpleasant woman and a man that Orvus had seen around the factory.

“This is the one, Ms. Wineland.” He said, gesturing to Sigma-0462A. She nodded.

“Thank you, Wayne.” Wayne kicked at the robot a bit.

“Freaky little thing, isn’t it? Just doesn’t shut up.” If he noticed the hurt look on Sigma-0462A’s face, he didn’t show it. Ms. Wineland only smiled and waved a piece of paper, which she attached to the robot’s chest.

“It’s been officially labeled as defective. Once we get one properly sourced, this one’s getting decommissioned and taken apart. We need to figure out what went wrong so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.” They walked away, and Orvus watched the dark blue robot slump a fair amount.

Shortly after this, the entire factory, so it seemed, went to lunch, leaving Sigma-0426A all alone. He looked to the door before back down at his broom. “I don’t wanna be shut down… But where else can I go?” Orvus glanced around a bit, realizing rather quickly that there were no security cameras or other people around, and moved in front of the robot, dropping his invisibility. Sigma-0426A jumped. “AH!” 

Orvus shushed him. “Shh, take it easy. You’re alright. My name is Orvus. I wanted to offer you an opportunity.” 

Sigma-0462A watched him, a curious expression on his face. “What sorta opportunity would you wanna offer a defective bot like me? I’m sure you’d rather have one of the perfect models.”

Orvus frowned at the self-deprecating tone and shook his head. “No, not at all! You’re quite unique. I think you’d do quite well at my… facility.” Orvus hated that he still didn’t know what to call the Clock. Was it his home, his prison, or something in between? He shook his head. Now was  _ not _ the time. 

Sigma-0426A looked nervous. “What would I be doing there?” 

Orvus waved a hand. “To start with, just cleaning, minor maintenance. I had rather figured that as time went on, we would see about adding more and more responsibilities if you were up to the challenge of them. Of course, there would be a lot for you to learn, and I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with you working on many of the machines without knowing how, exactly they worked…” Orvus trailed off from his rambling when he saw the look of sheer joy on Sigma-0462A’s face.

“Really?” When Orvus nodded, he grinned. “Yes. That sounds amazing! When can we go? Do I have to do anything?” 

Orvus couldn’t help but chuckle, even as he shook his head. “No. Just prepare yourself.” He moved forward and lightly grasped the robot’s arm.

“For what?” He asked as Orvus teleported them both to the Clock.


End file.
